Royalties for Pope Benedict XVI's writings and speeches? The Italian publishing world is aghast. The demand by the Vatican to respect copyright on the pontiff's writings and pay for their use has triggered hot debate: Should an institution which exists to spread the word of God be putting a price on papal writ? Unthinkable, say some authors. Not so, counters the Vatican; the authors are being paid for their efforts, so why not the church? While the question is pondered, the new papacy is shaping up as a publisher's dream. Benedict's first encyclical, "God is Love," is a best-seller. ... http://abcnews.go.com

The South Texas sun hung low on the sprawling Armstrong Ranch when Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting party encountered two last coveys of quail.The late-day find could have meant a winged bonanza for Cheney, prominent Austin lawyer Harry Whittington and Pamela Willeford, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Instead, the final shot from Cheney's 28-gauge Perazzi Brescia shotgun found Whittington, peppering his right torso, neck and face with up to 200 pellets."I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend," Cheney said Wednesday on Fox News Channel, his only public account of the Feb. 11 shooting. "And I say that is something I'll never forget."But despite a week of details trickling out from Cheney, Whittington, eyewitnesses and official reports of the incident, a clear picture of exactly what happened on the ranch's Comal Pasture has yet to emerge....http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3669994.html

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said President George W. Bush didn't need court approval when he authorized a National Security Agency surveillance program, and that the U.S. law establishing a special court to review national security wiretap requests doesn't need to be changed. ``I don't think that it does need to be rewritten,'' Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said about the 1978 law on CBS's ``Face the Nation.'' When asked if the NSA program, which conducts surveillance without warrants, should be reviewed by the court, he said, ``I personally don't think so.'' Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced legislation that would require the Foreign Intelligence Security Act court to examine the NSA surveillance. While the New York Times reported yesterday that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts also supports court review of the wiretapping, Senator Saxby Chambliss, a panel member, questioned that today. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=azhhe_QPHWrA&refer=home

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has continued to spread, with India, France and Iran becoming the latest countries to confirm the presence of the virus. In western India the strain was found among thousands of dead chickens at a farm, and health officials are testing eight people for possible infection. France and Iran also reported their first H5N1 cases, following tests carried out on dead birds. The strain has killed at least 90 people since it emerged in 2003. It can be caught by humans who handle infected birds, but it is not yet known to have been passed between people. Scientists have warned that if the virus mutates it could create a pandemic that would kill millions of people. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4728632.stm

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff on Sunday defended the government's security review of an Arab company given permission to take over operations at six major U.S. ports. "We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint," Chertoff said on ABC's "This Week." London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., was bought last week by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business from the United Arab Emirates. Peninsular and Oriental runs major commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. U.S. lawmakers from both parties are questioning the sale, approved by the Bush administration, as a possible risk to national security. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/19/national/main1330431.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1330431

Iran's hard-line Islamic spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented fatwa, or holy order, approving the use of atomic weapons against the country's enemies. Muslim clerics for the first time have questioned the theocracy's traditional viewpoint that Shariah law forbids the use of nuclear weapons. One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, a reference considered to be the United States and Europe. The pronouncement was issued by Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the extremely hard-line Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi's group opposes virtually any kind of rapprochement with the West and is believed to have influenced Mr. Ahmadinejad's refusal to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. ...http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060218-115245-5182r.htm